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PDP witness tells tribunal he signed Nasarawa result sheet under duress

A witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Hamza, on Monday told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that he signed the election results of Nasarawa State under duress.
Atiku Abubakar [Twitter/@atiku]
Atiku Abubakar [Twitter/@atiku]

A witness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ibrahim Hamza, on Monday told the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) that he signed the election results of Nasarawa State under duress.

The witness said this at the continuation of a hearing of the petition filed by Atiku Abubakar and his party, PDP.

They are challenging the February 25 presidential election results which brought president Bola Tinubu as duly elected president.

The respondents in the petition marked CA/PEPC/05/2023 are Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tinubu, and his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The witness, who is the 10th witness called by the PDP, said he is a human resources consultant and represented his party, PDP as Nasarawa collation officer.

Being cross examined by the counsel for INEC, Abubakar Mahmoud, the witness told the court that he signed the results under duress.

"I did not state this in my witness statement of oath because I know a day like this would come. The results were altered after I appended my name and signed.

"Due process was not followed. I had to sign to obtain a copy of the results because there was this intimidation that if I did not sign, I would not be given the result," he said.

He said that he voted but the results were not uploaded because the Bimodal Voters Accrediton Ssystem (BVAS) failed .

Similarly, Abiye Sekibo, the seventh witness, told the court during cross-examination by counsel for Tinubu, Akin Olujimi (SAN), that the results from polling units across the state were not captured on BVAS. Sekibo, is PDP's state collation officer for Rivers

He said, "All the polling units I went to, they could not upload the results."

He however admitted that his candidate did not poll up to 25% of votes in the Federal Capital Territory.

Abraham David, who testified as the ninth witness and was the FCT collation officer, said his candidate did not win 25% votes in FCT.

Lastly, Mohammed Madaki, PDP chairman for FCT testified as the eighth witness.

Meanwhile, the five-member panel, led by Justice Haruna Tsammani, adjourned the further hearing of the petition until tomorrow.

The petitioners are calling 100 witnesses to prove their petition. 

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